If you want a silencer for your hunting rifle, you should reserve it now before the federal tax is lifted.

You read that right. Buy it now, but take possession of it only after Jan. 1, when the National Firearms Act provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill take effect.

Jeb Burnett of Roland, owner of Armtac USA, makes custom silencers, and he also sells silencers from multiple manufacturers. A major provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill removes the compulsory $200 federal tax on silencers. Removing that significant expense, Burnett said, will stimulate intense demand and exhaust existing inventories in a short time.

“If you buy it right now, we will sit on that serial number until January,” Burnett said. “If you wait until January, it’s first-come, first-served. There will be a 16- to 18-month shortage once this hits.”

The shortage might last even longer pending the outcome of legislation filed by firearms ownership advocacy groups to delete silencers from the National Firearms Act of 1934.

“If they remove silencers completely from the NFA, it will take manufacturers more like 24 to 30 months to catch up to demand,” Burnett said.

The Firearms Policy Coalition, The Second Amendment Foundation, the American Suppressor Association, and the National Rifle Association filed lawsuits within hours of President Trump signing the One Big Beautiful Bill to remove silencers, and also short-barrel rifles and short-barrel shotguns, entirely from the National Firearms Act. The objective is to exempt these items from registration. Registration was a mechanism to prove that the taxes had been paid in accordance with NFA requirements. With the taxes eliminated, according to the National Rifle Association, there is no justification under the NFA to register the items.

“In the case of short-barrel rifles, and short-barrel shotguns, they will be classed like a handgun,” Burnett said. “You’ll have to undergo an instant background check and complete a Form 4473 before you can take possession of it. Then you will see an absolute supply and demand nightmare for awhile.”

Reasons to equip a rifle with a silencer are myriad. For starters, muzzle blast is noise pollution. Depending on the cartridge being discharged, a gunshot registers 150-170 decibels. A jet engine is between 140-153 decibels. A stock exhaust system for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which is meant to be loud and obnoxious, is 80-90 decibels.

Suppressors reduce the concussive element of a gunshot. It does not eliminate the percussive crack of a bullet breaking the sound barrier. The only instance when a silencer truly silences a projectile is when it’s used with subsonic .22-caliber rimfire ammunition. Avid squirrel hunters like this because it truly is quiet, allowing a squirrel hunter to remove multiple squirrels from a tree without alarming the others.

A suppressor makes any common centerfire hunting round sound like a high-performance pellet rifle.

A great amount of deer hunting with modern rifles occurs near residences. Homes abut the property lines of the Old Belfast Hunting Club, with more being built all the time. People raised in the country are used to the barrage of noise that occurs on opening weekend of modern gun deer season, but it shocks newcomers and terrifies pets.

When you shoot an unsuppressed rifle at a deer in a herd, the muzzle blast panics the entire herd. Conversely, I’ve seen deer taken down with suppressed rifles while only puzzling deer standing right beside it.

All hunters of a certain age have suffered significant hearing loss related to gunfire. Neither we nor our parents considered the effects of gunfire on hearing when we were kids. But now we do know better, and eliminating the NFA tax on suppressors will make it a lot easier to shoot more responsibly.

As one contributor on a popular shooting website posted, “If guns were invented today, OSHA would require suppressors.”

Many new rifles come factory threaded for suppressors. Eliminating the tax removes will make it significantly cheaper for hunters to reduce their sonic footprints.